A resident of Perpignan filed a complaint for manslaughter against relatives of her mother. She accuses them of having transmitted the Covid-19 to her when they knew they were in contact. The 80-year-old mother, Bernadette, died last November in Nevers hospital.
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Fabienne Condamin, a resident of Perpignan, shows us with emotion the notebook held by her mother Bernadette. It was in this notebook that she wrote down the first symptoms of her illness, Covid-19, last November. It is also in this notebook that she noted the visit of a couple of relatives who came to see her while they were waiting for the result of their covid test and they knew they had been in contact: “In the evening, after their visit, my mother calls me, testifies Fabienne, she tells me that the man of the couple was out of breath and that he was coughing but nothing more. The next day, she calls me again worried and angry. She was screaming into the phone. She just announced to me that they had covid, she told me, that they had been tested before coming but that they did not have the results yet and that they still have made the decision to come see us. “
A week later, Fabienne’s mother and her husband tested positive for Covid-19. But Bernadette’s state of health will quickly decline. She is 80 years old and has heart disease.
When I left this intensive care unit, I knew very well that it was going to be over
After several calls with the doctor, Bernadette was finally hospitalized at Nevers hospital, where she resides. She was placed in intensive care and then in an artificial coma. The doctors call Fabienne, she has to come see her mother one last time: ” Around 7:30 p.m., I got the phone call where I was told, listen, she won’t spend the night, if you want to see her, it’s now. I found myself in this intensive care unit, it’s quite supernatural, it was already dark, the light was very yellow. There were machines everywhere, it smelled of bleach, very strong. Afterwards I was dressed in the necessary sanitary clothes and I spent a long time with her to say goodbye to her. And when I left this intensive care unit, I knew very well that it was going to be over. And the doctor called me during the night telling me that it was over, that she was gone.“
Irresponsibility pointed out
After the funeral and the mourning Fabienne Condamin and her two children lodged a complaint for “reckless manslaughter” : “We consider that in this specific case, Fabienne’s lawyer tells us, master Philippe Capsié, someone who knows they are in contact, someone who takes the step to test themselves, who presents the first symptoms of covid-19 and who, in a context of confinement, will, despite everything, visit the elderly. We consider that at that time he commits a fault of recklessness and he is particularly negligent and therefore we consider that these faults of recklessness and negligence are indeed at the origin of the death which will occur a few days later . This is the legal meaning.”
Collective awareness
With this complaint Fabienne is not looking for a conviction or compensation: “The message we want to convey to us is never that again. Today people need to be aware of that, and today it is this message that we want to pass on to my children. We wish this absurd death could be used for something. It is a complaint against irresponsibility so that there is a collective awareness. “
For the moment, no follow-up has been given to Fabienne’s complaint, but she hopes that the public prosecutor in Nevers will open an investigation.
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